I’ve left my dreams on a shelf for decades, never believing that they were possible, until I took the following steps and found I CAN live my dreams; and you can too. 

“Do you have any ideas for poses you want to do?” My photographer asks me. “Yes! I want to get into these flowers over here” I eagerly respond. Adrenalin starts coursing through my veins with the thrill of stepping in front of the camera. I sit in the flower bed gently. “Let me adjust for the lighting. Okay, now bring your hand up to your face” I bring my hand up gently, softening all of my features telling myself to embody peace, grace, and beauty. “That’s it, now tilt your head a little to the left, perfect.” The camera clicks over and over again. At this moment in time, I’m the focus and it’s time to let all of me shine at the forefront. I pose and improvise, letting my intuition guide me. “You want to see some of these pictures?” I’m taken aback. They look stunning, beautiful, and ethereal. I’m creating something beautiful, and it’s only my first photoshoot. 

Putting Dreams on a Shelf

When I was a kid, I was told I couldn’t succeed at my dream, and I believed the adults who told me this. Maybe you can relate. Since I was told it was too challenging to accomplish, that I shouldn’t even try, I believed the adults and I didn’t try. That is, until now. The interesting thing is, I know I’m not alone in this. So many people have dreams that they have never attempted for one reason or another. If you have a desire, a talent, a gift that you want to share, there’s a formula to bring this into the world. 

“So many people have dreams that they have never attempted for one reason or another.”

 

When I was younger I was obsessed with America’s Next Top Model. I had been drawing since I was 5 years old, taking many art classes, so I was familiar with how to find interesting compositions in still lives, in landscapes, in architecture. But modeling was a whole different ball game to me. It was captivating how the models knew how to position their bodies to make attention-grabbing compositions. I wanted to know how to be on the other side of the canvas, so to speak.

I was always told I looked like a movie star and that I was beautiful enough to model. I remember being approached by a modeling agency, scouting at the mall. The woman loved how unique my look was and wanted to bring me in to get sample photos and headshots. I was so excited, I wanted to do it. Except my parents said no, because modeling, especially in New York, was too competitive, too difficult, and not worth trying. That was that.

 

I went years and years without giving modeling a serious thought. I’d have fun with my sister, having her take about a billion pictures of me when I could convince her that was a good idea. I’d have fun posing and seeing what interesting effects I could get but that was about it. As time went on and I got into my mid-20s, I even thought I was too old to try and start modeling thinking “that ship has passed.”

Until this year when I said “No more! I’m not going to miss my chance to even give it a shot.  No more not trying because I believe I’ll fail. I had this moment of clarity where I thought “why don’t I try it? If I fail, I fail and nothing’s been lost. But if I can succeed then I can follow my dream!”

“No more not trying because I believe I’ll fail.”

Knowing Your Worth

It is so easy not to do something because of fear of failure. Although usually if you look closer there’s fear underneath that fear, it may be a fear of being alone, or not being loved, or even a fear of success. Underneath fear of failure is a lack of knowing your self-worth. That’s what most things really come down to is knowing that you are worthy to do what you want to do. 

“It is so easy not to do something because of fear of failure. What most things really come down to is knowing that you are worthy.”

So how do you know that you’re worthy? And how do you do something even while feeling afraid? I’ll get to that…but first know that moving through it is so, so worth it.

How I Started Living My Dream

I created social media pages, joined groups for models and open shoots, reached out to as many photographers as I could, spent hours being coached by a friend who’s a professional actor and model. I’ve been quickly getting traction, it’s been 3 months, I’ve done over a dozen photoshoots and have been paid to model a clothing line. Words cannot describe the amount of joy and pure bliss I feel when I step in front of a camera for a photoshoot.

For the first time in my life, I feel like “I can really do it.” It’s given me confidence in all areas in my life because this was a huge step for me saying “I will try something new, even though I don’t know if I’ll succeed.”

You don’t get or need confidence before trying something new. Confidence comes afterward, when you become confident you can deliver a result. Before you attempt something new, you don’t know what the result will be so there’s not a pattern to be confident in yet. 

“Once you develop confidence in your own ability, you’ll be able to make a real contribution to creating a better world. Self-confidence is very important. Not in the sense of blind pride, but as a realistic awareness of what you can do. As human beings we can transform ourselves by our good qualities and reducing our faults. Our intelligence enables us to judge what is good from what is harmful.” – Dalai Lama

 

 

3 Steps to Live Your Dream

So let’s rewind to how you know you’re worthy and to do that you need to know what you’re capable of. There are three keys that I used in order to follow my dream.  This worked for me and has worked for many others. These steps can be supported by sessions and classes brought to the public by The Modern Mystery School.

1. Know your gifts, your potential and what you’re capable of.
   • The Life Activation is a session that unlocks your full potential. It’s like if you’re currently traversing through life in a horse and buggy. A Life Activation upgrades you to a modern car.
2. With a desire to fulfill your dreams, take action steps towards your goals.
   • Empower Thyself Class & Initiation is a two day class which hands down teachings, processes and energetic empowerment for actualizing your potential. It’s like upgrading your car to have all the bells and whistles to make it a smoother ride and get a built in navigation system to have clarity around where to go. It makes it easier to put ideas into action. 
3. Feel the fear and do it anyway. F.E.A.R. Is False Expectations Appearing Real. Fears are based on past experiences and the belief the same outcome will happen in the future even if that’s not necessarily true. 
   • Universal Hermetic Ray Kabbalah is a 10 month program that dives into the process of creation and also how to look at, heal and resolve old patterns that are holding you back.

The truth is, you can follow your dreams!

The truth is, you can follow your dreams! You can attempt and do the thing you’ve always wanted! It doesn’t mean it’ll be easy. But will it be rewarding, fulfilling, and bring you joy? In my experience, yes. Doing this takes courage, it takes wanting to try it even not knowing how things will turn out. If you want support along the way, let’s chat, I’d love to help support you with fulfilling your dreams. 

 

 

All of the photos included in this article are from my modeling endeavors. If you’d like to see more, follow me on Instagram @ mysterious_mur

 

Photographers’ Instragrams in order by photo: 

@ oneeyethroughthelens

@ maddiefoxyfox

@ hollyoptics

@ simply_caitlyn_

@ illwillmedia

@ oneeyethroughthelens

@ illwillmedia

What if everyone could hear your thoughts?

If you’re like most people – that would not be a pleasant experience. In fact, it would probably be a pointedly unpleasant experience. Most people have don’t have control of their mind and are constantly thinking about anything and everything, like:

• “Hmm, I wonder what I’m going to make for dinner. I do have leftover chicken but I don’t really want it again.”
• “Shoot, I need to go to make some reservations for my in-laws this weekend. Where am I going to call? They never like a place I choose. They can really be so difficult.”
• “Today I need to finish my report, prepare for the presentation tomorrow, get that document peer-reviewed, and send out those deliverables. God this is going to be a long day.”
• “What do I want to watch tonight? I just finished that series…there’s nothing good to watch anymore.”
• “Yikes look at him, does he not realize how frumpy he looks in that?”
• “I can’t believe I just said that. I’m such an idiot. Of course, I should’ve known that that’d go over badly.”

Most people tend to be self-critical, sometimes judgmental of others, and overall have many negative thoughts.

 

Now if everyone could hear those thoughts, you probably wouldn’t want them to hear those particular thoughts and you’d probably want to quickly learn to shift your thinking. But just because people can’t hear your thoughts, doesn’t mean it isn’t worth shifting your thinking.

 

What you think becomes your reality.

 

Let me explain. Thoughts have effects whether you’re aware of them or not. There is a feedback loop of what you think will happen becomes more likely to happen. For example, people who believe in themselves tend to succeed versus those who believe they will fail. Your subconscious acts on what you focus on so it will focus on either “success” or “failure” based on your thoughts, and set you up for what you’re focused on. When what you expected to happen actually does like you actually fail when you thought you would, then this reinforces the original thought. This causes you to think even more that you will fail in the future. Thus setting in a pattern of creating in your life what you think, because you will continue to think the same thing.

 

“Those who think they can and those who think they can’t are both usually right.” – Confucius.

 

This creates a spiraling effect. If you think you’ll fail – then you do, you’ll continue to think you’ll fail and when you do, you’ll continue to think you’ll fail even more. Or on the flip side, if you think you’ll succeed – then you do, you’ll continue to think you’ll succeed and when you do, you’ll continue to think you’ll succeed even more.

 

Being able to control your mind is so important because then you can shift your thoughts from a negative perspective to a positive one and create a positive spiraling effect.

 

If you’re in the boat that so many people are in, of having negative thoughts both about yourself and others-

What can you do to control your mind?

 

1. One powerful tool is meditation. Meditation is not only having a quiet mind but it is learning to focus and harness the mind.
   • When you need to “reset” your mind, one technique is to take several deep breaths, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. Do this for several minutes and visualize light coming down, in through the top of your head, and filling up your whole body until it is overflowing with light.
   • For more techniques, the Modern Mystery School teaches several forms of meditation to increase inner peace, relaxation, and control the mind to overcome negative thoughts.
2. Do positive affirmations. Take time each morning to state out-loud things you want in your life, but say it in the present tense like you’ve already achieved it.
   • For example, if you’re wanting to be more in shape you can say “I am healthy, strong and in the best shape I’ve ever been in.”
3. Express gratitude. At the end of the day, write down with pen and paper at least 5 things you’re grateful for that happened during the day. This will help shift your focus into a positive mindset.
   • You can be grateful for your bed because you’re tired. You can be grateful because the sun came out that day. You can be grateful that you made progress towards one of your goals. Anything and everything counts.

 

Try these three things for a week and notice if you start to see any changes. If you want support being able to make the shifts you’d like, reach out, I’d love to chat with you.

Superheroes are incredible. There’s a reason why so many people are entranced by them. There’s a real awe in people who can save the world. I know I dreamt of being a superhero when I was a kid, and as an adult I absolutely love the Marvel movies. The Marvel universe in particular catches my interest because most of the superheroes are normal people who end up with super powers, or gain technology that makes them super.

At the core of this fascination of superheroes, is a desire to be able to help the world. Currently this world can be pretty shitty, and it certainly seems like we could use some superheroes.

That’s why I am one.

Or at the very least, the closest I’ve found to any true superheroes on this planet.

In short, I’ve found a way to help drastically improve the lives of myself, others and communities, with the goal of bettering the world.

Recall if you will Dr. Strange. He finds Kamar-Taj, a school of magic and studies that magic to try to heal himself, but in the end finds he can use the magic to help others and save the world. The Modern Mystery School is similar to Kamar-Taj in that it teaches magick to better the world. This magick is taught so we can transform our world in the physical. The practice of alchemy is changing something into something else or creating something out of nothing. Now it doesn’t look as cool as creating light weapons and light shields like in Doctor Strange. But what it does, I’d say, is more powerful.

The magick available is thousands of years old and can help people overcome depression, addiction, anxiety, apathy, just to name a few, and it can help people create lives that fill them with joy, purpose, fulfillment, and so, so much more.

I’ve seen drastic transformation in myself and others. Using this magick to save ourselves and make our lives really incredible to live.

We make our world better by making our communities better. And we make our communities better by making ourselves better.

It starts with us. If we lived in a world where the majority of people were selfless and peaceful, we wouldn’t have the greed, starvation, and war we do today. The world is made up of billions of individuals, it starts by shifting ourselves, then we can help others shift and so on and so forth.

The goal of the Modern Mystery School is world peace. I’ve witnessed and participated in some extremely amazing high level magick to help the world.

Being a superhero means saving the world, it means helping to create world peace.

Becoming a superhero starts with a choice. A choice to shift yourself, a choice to open yourself to tools beyond the norm, a choice to use magick to shift your life to have more joy and inner peace, and a choice to help others do the same.

Loving Yourself First

As we enter the month of February, with Valentine’s day fast approaching, many people will be shifting their focus to their romantic relationship or the absence of it. With this heightened attention, I thought this would be a good time to share what I’ve found to be the key to having a fulfilling, loving relationship. So whether you’re looking to create a new relationship or improve the one you’re in now this article can benefit you.

In our culture, we focus a lot on external love. As a collective, we mostly believe and accept that the key to happiness is finding someone who we love and building a life together. What I have found is that the key to a thriving relationship actually works in the opposite way.

Instead of finding love externally to create happiness, when you first find love for yourself within, create your own happiness and then look for love externally, you will be able to create a much more fulfilling relationship.

Why does this work?

Well, with a solid base of love and happiness for yourself, it is much easier to love others. This is because love is a need. We all need love in some form. If we don’t have a strong foundation of love for ourselves, we will only get the love we need from our family, friends and romantic partners. But, without this strong foundation, our happiness is dependent on this love from others, putting us at the effect of how loving the people in our lives choose to be. It also becomes much harder to love others in a full way because now love has become a scarce resource, taking energy away when you’re not receiving enough and making it harder to give.

The truth is, is that love is infinite.

We have infinite capacity to give and receive love, to ourselves, to others. It is not a finite resource, but an infinite one.

We can create as much love for ourselves and for others as we choose.

By choosing to live in a way in which you truly love yourself, you approach others with an “overflowing cup.” This means that you aren’t in need of love from others.  Although it is nice to receive, you have so much love for yourself that your cup is full. With this fullness love can flow over to others.

Love is like any other resource. It’s easier to give when you have a lot of it.

When two people have love for themselves and come together to create a partnership, what can be created is a very fulfilling and joyful relationship. With both people having a foundation in self-love, they can give a lot more love to each other. Having this structure in the relationship, makes it something that is sustainable and rewarding for both people.

How do you love yourself more?

There are infinite ways to love yourself. Here’s a list of some ways that have worked for me.

1.  Focus on your successes.

It’s much easier to love yourself when you’re looking at all the good things you’re doing versus the bad. If every night before you go to sleep you write down at least 5 successes for the day, you will start to shift your view of yourself to focus on your positive actions versus the negative.

2.  Write why you love yourself.

Similar to #1, if you write down one thing you truly love about yourself each day, then you will start to shift your focus of yourself to your good qualities versus perceived bad ones. I recommend doing this at the start of each day, so that you’ll have a positive aspect of yourself more present for you in your mind throughout the day.

3. Self care.

Taking time during the week to make sure you’re taking care of yourself and getting quality time doing things that relax you or that you enjoy. Whether it’s getting a massage, doing art, going for a hike, giving yourself time to do things that make you happy, tell your subconscious that you prioritize and value yourself.

4. Know yourself.

Truly knowing yourself on a deep level, understanding what motivates your actions and decisions makes it much easier to love yourself. Lack of self-love is usually because you’re being judgmental of yourself, comparing yourself to how you believe you should be. But by understanding truly what causes you to be as you are, it becomes easier to not judge yourself because with understanding comes acceptance.

5. Deeper connection to yourself.

Similar to knowing yourself, deepening your connection to yourself involves finding what truly brings you joy and actively working to bring this into your life. By doing what makes you feel fulfilled, you value yourself in a much more profound way. This fosters love for yourself because you are creating a life for yourself that brings you joy, and that creation can only be done out of love.

Next Steps

I hope you enjoyed this article and found value in thinking about loving yourself more, so that you can have the loving relationship you desire.

If you are interested in strengthening your connection to who you truly are or learning about a path to know yourself please visit the Contact page to sign up for a free consultation.